Listening with the Heart
by ballerinachyn
Summary: Just the father-daughter relationship between Chiron and Annabeth. Short story, Mortal AU. Percy is not mentioned, really. Not directly, anyways.


Annabeth Chase, for a 4-year old, was for sure a brilliant young girl, and if there was one object in her household that intrigued her, it was the telephone. She learned that inside the small telephone, there was a mega-genius or some sort of thing that lived in there that knew everything. Her dad, Frederick, could ask the telephone what time it was, how the weather would be the next day and et cetera.

It wasn't like telephones were a common thing. Her family was one of the few families that could actually afford a telephone. It was 1972, and that meant change! Things were developing.

One day, she heard her stepmom call a name: "Curiosity." Annabeth remembered the number that she had dialed in: 105.

Eventually, she got a chance to talk to "Curiosity." That day, she was alone by herself, and was playing with her Legos in her room. However, there was a spider on top of her blue Lego, given to her by a cute little boy in school named Percy. In a hurry, she took a hammer from her dad's shed and used it to whack the Lego, only to miss, scaring the spider away but hitting her thumb, and it quickly swelled up.

Because she was the only one at home, crying didn't make anyone run up to her room. Annabeth ran downstairs, picked up the receiver, dialed in 105, and said to the receiver, "Curiosity?"

A voice of a comforting old man picked up. As soon as Annabeth heard someone's voice, she couldn't help but burst into tears, telling him, "I'm home alone, my finger got hit by a hammer…"

"Are you tall enough to get the ice cubes in the freezer?" he asked her, calmly. Annabeth stalked into the kitchen, taking the ice cubes out of the fridge and putting them into a plastic bag, listening to his instructions. As she placed the ice cubes on her finger, the pain subsided a little. Annabeth believed that the old man that lived in the telephone was using his magic to help her.

After that incident, Annabeth would always talk to the old man on the telephone. She always asked him many questions, such as "How do you calculate the area of a dodecahedron?" "Why do people in my dad's American history textbook have white wigs?" and "How do you spell the longest word on earth?" He always patiently answered her questions, describing the words to her over and over again. She told him that her name was Annabeth, and she also learned his name: Chiron. "Curiosity" was just a name other random people called him.

One day, Annabeth's pet owl suddenly died. She was very sad, and her heart hurt more than the hammer hitting her hand. She picked up the telephone and called Chiron.

"Can you tell me why, Chiron?" She asked, "Why did my owl, who is always making noise… singing? - at me, suddenly completely stop moving and lie at the bottom of the cage?"

Chiron thought about it, then told Annabeth, "Do you know, I think your owl went to sing in another world."

Annabeth believed Chiron, that her little owl actually went to sing in another world, a world that is better than the earth, and sing happily there.

After Annabeth grew up, she left her hometown for New York to study, understood how telephones worked, but she really wanted to know Chiron, the person that was basically treating her like a second father although they'd never met in person.

There was one day where Annabeth was back in her hometown for a business trip. When she got back to her place, after a family reunion, she dialed 105, "Curiosity", trying to contact Chiron.

In the phone there came a familiar noise, and Annabeth said, "Can you tell me how to spell the longest word on earth?"

There was silence for a few seconds, until Chiron's voice said, "I hope your finger is completely healed, Annabeth."

They laughed together.

Annabeth told her about her college, living in New York, her relationship with the guy that gave her blue Legos in kindergarten, and told him that he was a vital part of her childhood, and her life would have been completely different without him.

Chiron told her, that he wanted to thank her. He said he didn't have kids, and Annabeth's frequent calls made him know the feeling of the love of parents.

In the conversation, Annabeth told Chiron, "I will come back here, and at that time I will be here longer. And I will come visit you."

She thought she could sense him smiling through the line. A warm smile of fatherly love.

After a year, Annabeth returned.

"Please, is Chiron there?" she yanked the telephone's receiver off the wall, dialing in 105, "Tell him that I'm Annabeth."

"I'm so sorry, miss." A girl said softly. "Chiron passed two weeks ago. Recently he's been pretty weak, taking half-days off work, until the last day… We all miss him so much. Wait, you said that you are Annabeth?"

"Yes, I'm Annabeth."

"Chiron left you a note, please wait one second… He said that you would understand what the message implies."

Afterward, she read the message: _"Annabeth, I am going to go and sing in another world…"_


End file.
